Monday, 13 April 2015

Healthy banana porridge

Alright?



I thought id kick of my recipes with a healthy ( and simple aha ) banana porridge.

Now i know it doesn't sound complicated at all... even for me :p but i changed it round a tiny bit to make it less calories with health benefits as well. So i thought why not share it ? Aren't i lovely aha

Ingredients :

25g of porridge in a sachet as its easier and i don't end up eating more than i should (110 calories)
1 teaspoon of coffee mate, it makes its creamy without milk and using less calories (20 calories)
a quarter cup of water 
a quarter cup of green tea with mango ( hardly any calories ) and green tea really helps with weight loss.
a small sized banana (90 calories)

I chopped up the banana into smallish pieces and chucked half into the jug, along with the porridge, water, green tea and coffee mate, then i put it into the microwave for about 3 1/2 minutes, you can add a bit more water if you want it thinner. Whilst that was cooking i put a few bits of banana into the bottom of my bowl, then poured the porridge over the banana and finished by sprinkling the rest on the top.

It was really simple, really tasty ( love bananas ) and very filling, weighing in at around 220 calories. 

Whats your favourite porridge topping? 

xxx

Day one

Good morning :)



It makes such a change for me to be up before lunch time for once, which actually gives me a good start at my diet. Breakfast and a morning workout, heading in the right direction.

So i started off today the way i do every monday lol. Weighed my self (worst part of the week ). Usually i wouldn't dream of putting my weight on the internet, or telling anyone for that matter, but i thought, may as well do it right. So just to remind you, I'm 5 ft 6 inches and my weight should be between 8 st 3 and 11 st 2. I think thats a bit too big of a gap to be fair, but as I'm 14 st 5 I'm classed as obese. Which is quite horrible to find out, but in a way, its good, cos its whats gonna help me stay motivated and lose this weight. That and a healthy diet and exercise ( yay *sad face* ! ) Im allowing myself 1000 calories today. Usually works out to around 200 calories for breakfast, 200-300 for lunch, and then 400-500 for dinner.

Im hoping to burn around 500 calories exercising aha but i usually stop after 10 minutes on the treadmill. I seem to get bored very easily, but started to try interval training on the treadmill, so I'm not just walking/running for the whole time, I'm mixing it up and not giving my self much time to get bored.


Breakfast time 

Usually i won't eat breakfast, as its not something i like, but thats why i net up snacking until dinner time i guess. So I'm gonna try to opt for something healthy but not too heavy. Probably a bowl of porridge as that should keep me full till lunch and its kind of low calorie.

 I managed to drag my self away from my laptop long enough to burn some calories :) i done 20 minutes on the treadmill ( 100 calories ), then i done 100 sit ups, well 103 incase i mis-counted, then i had a shower and done 30 squats, a 15 minute arm workout thingy and a 10 second plank ( it was all i could manage aha ).

Yep, breakfast was a lovely concoction of water, porridge oats and banana ! how plain aha. I tried to make it a bit more healthier. than the usual oats and milk. But before that i started off with a large glass of cold water with a handful of ice cubes and a cup of green tea and mango, which is really nice and only 1 calorie a cup.

Breakfast total was 234 calories

Lunch time 

I skipped lunch! Whoops. I know i wasn't gonna, but i struggle to eat 3 proper meals a day, thats why i often skip breakfast. But its not as important i guess, ill just have to eat a largish amount of veggies at dinner to make up for it. How lucky am i aha.


Dinner time

The last meal of the day. Definitely the nicest as well aha. Dinner was about 95% healthy i think ( i had salad dressing, which i know is naughty, but better than a takeaway aha ).I had some Lamb slices, with a birdseye rice fusion mediterranean vegetable pack ( yum and only 235 calories for a large portion ), a corn on the cob, large flat mushroom and a large salad with lettuce, cucumber onion and radish, which took up about half the plate. I had around 2 tablespoons of sweet chilli sauce and around 1 table spoon of italian salad dressing.

Dinner total was 765 calories ( usually dinner wouldn't be that big, but i did skip lunch :p )

Todays total is exactly 1000 calories.  Right on target :)

Im pretty proud of myself today aha, i usually end up being really good, then just binging at night because I'm so hungry and thinking ' well it don't matter, i ate healthy today '. But i haven't, I've stuck to it, eaten properly and don't feel hungry. So well done me, 1 day down and like a million to go !


xxx





Wednesday, 8 April 2015

The Beginning

Alright? Im Dann.



Pretty basic introduction, i know. So lemme start by telling you a bit about my self. Im a twenty one year old typical kind of girl, living in Essex and i hate my body. Now i know thats hardly an uncommon thing to hear, but its true. For ages now I've been unhappy with my weight, like a lot of people are. Lemme start from when i was younger, i was always slim and healthy until my asthma started getting out of control and i had to go on steroids to control it ( as many as 58 a week ), which unfortunately turnt me into a human balloon, it seemed as though every time i lost the weight, id have another attack and put it all back on, but the more i was having, the harder it was to shift the weight. Along with that, I've had to have a number of operations, leaving me bed bound for a few weeks at least. And i felt like there was nothing else to do except eat. (not using that as an excuse, just painting the full picture for ya ). Anyways, i struggled to lose weight but all i wanted was to be slim and look good in clothes and just feel happy and confident about myself but instead of changing the way i ate and exercising and just keep on going, what did i do? i comfort ate. It seemed like a good idea at the time, helped me forget about feeling down... for about half hour. So i promised my self i would go on a diet *tomorrow*. 3 years later, there i was, weighing in at 15 st 1, the heaviest I've ever been.  

It was horrible, when it finally hit me that i was over weight and weighed that much. How could i let myself get that out of control? Why me? Why didn't i lose weight before? Why couldn't i be naturally skinny? but i knew none of that mattered. The only important question now was what was i going to do about it. And there was only one answer for that!

So that night, i went online and ordered a load of 'healthy' food... vegetables, lean meat, wholemeal bread, diet drinks and i worked out my meals for the next week. Along with some exercises i was gonna do and a bunch of rules i was going to stick to. Easy i thought, ill lose the weight in no time, nothing to worry about. How wrong was i. Day one was hard as i went from eating excess amounts of sugar, fat and fried foods, to eating meat and veg and trying to keep up with 8 glasses of water a day. As well as fitting in all the exercises i had planned for my self, definitely jumped in the deep end. That night i went to bed knackered, hungry but happy... until i woke up the next morning, with a raging head ache and terrible pains in my legs, arms and stomach from all the exercise i had done the day before. Instead of trying to find another way, i ordered myself a takeaway and said id try again tomorrow, before i knew it, it was almost a week and i had eaten more each day, telling my self tomorrow will be ok. That went on for a while, with other diets being tested out. I went on slimming world for about a week, lost a few lbs and felt good, but the next week, i put on 2 and it completely knocked me back. I felt like all the effort was for nothing. So what did i do? i ate practically everything insight till i felt as though i couldn't move. It was awful, i was stuck in this horrible rut and it was getting harder and harder to get out of. 

That was 3 months ago, since then I've been on and off of diets weekly, losing the odd lb here n there but not seeing any change in my body ( apart from the stretch marks rapidly growing up and down my thighs back and sides ). To be honest, i think that was what made me realise i had to change. I was ruining my body, all this yo-yo dieting wasn't doing my body any good, as i could see. And it had to stop!

 I'm no longer gonna allow myself to eat whatever i want, I'm not gonna allow my self to continue in this horrible habit, of eating because i feel down, over eating and then getting upset when i put on weight, or spending endless amount of money on takeaways 'because its the weekend'. Its only gonna get worse the longer it goes on. So as from today, it all stops, and my journey to a healthier happier me starts. 

The reason i decided to start a blog is because i think it may help me in sticking to my diet, i know only i can do it, but if i write down everything i eat in daily posts, then maybe id think twice before 'cheating' or 'having a day off'. It might be just what i need, and if i get the chance to help anyone along the way, then thats a added bonus :).

The 'diet' that I'm gonna be stick to is what i find i stick to the most. Its basically calorie counting and not going over a certain amount, then in a few weeks i might restrict the calories to about half for one day a week, the slowly build up to two. This might not work for some people, or it may not be something your interested in, but for me, i find its the easiest for me to stick to, as I'm not totally restricted to what i eat. 

To start off with, I'm gonna aim for 1100 calories or less with at least half hour exercise 5 times a week. Im not a member at a gym as i don't feel comfortable, but i do have a few things at home that help me, including a treadmill which i find is the best way for me to exercise, along with about 100 sit ups a day and i try to get in some exercises to tone up my legs.

My goal is to lose 3 stone to begin with. Ideally i would like to lose 1 to 2 stone before my 22nd birthday (july 14th). For some that might seem unrealistic or too much of a big goal to start off with, or you may feel its not a big enough goal... who knows. But what i do know, is its right for me, as its something to focus on. 

Im hoping to post what i eat every day, along with a few other things and maybe some recipes if your lucky. I would love you to join me in my journey and keep me posted on your weight loss, what works best for you, and any tips or questions you may have.

Thankyou for reading

xxx